What do you know? The check really was in the mail.

After a long wait for my economic stimulus payment, the check appeared in my mailbox yesterday, June 23.

After all the confusion about when we'd be getting the money, and in what form, I wasn't exactly holding my breath June 20, when the paper check was due, according to the IRS website. And indeed, the day came and went and there was nothing but junk mail and catalogs in the afternoon mail.
I was prepared to wait another week or two before calling the help-line number. Not that I thought calling it would do any good.

But yesterday, I recognized the government-issue green check immediately, and tore it open carefully to check that it was indeed for the correct amount. It was indeed: An $1,800 windfall. I could hardly believe it had come through.

All manner of temptations ran through my head for how to "spend" it. (Hey, I'm a good American, raised to consume, just like the rest of you). A summer trip? New bunk-beds for the kids? Spa-week with the girls? How about just paying my rent for a month and socking the extra away?

Calm down all of you commentators. I'm just sharing my fantasies here. The truth is, the entire check will be spent doing exactly what the government doesn't want me to do with it: It's all gone to pay off the credit card.

OK, with maybe $100 set aside extra for me. I am the taxpayer, after all....

Being out of debt might not make me a good American, but it sure feels freeing. Thanks, Dubya! My family salutes you.